Verstappen: We have no grip which just feels massively tyre-related

It was ultra-slippery around the neon-infused Las Vegas Strip Circuit, 2023 winner Verstappen was two seconds down on the pace set by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. In P19, Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull was a quarter second down on his teammate.

The Red Bull RB20 is currently not operating in a competitive window. With both the VCARBs faster than the 'senior' cars on day one, suggests that Verstappen and Perez are sandbagging massively or they are in some serious trouble.

Verstappen's body language in the TV pen, post-FP2 suggests the latter, he said of his "slippery" session: "We struggled a lot with making the tyres work, over one lap especially. The long run started off a bit more competitive, but even there I think we need to fine-tune a few things. The one-lap pace is quite far off.

“Of course, it’s quite unique conditions around here and it’s very cold, but at the end of the day, it’s the same for everyone, so we need to try and understand what we’re doing wrong. For me, it just feels massively tyre-related. The balance of the car is not even that wrong, I think, it’s just we have no grip – it’s like driving on ice at the moment," explained Max.

The triple F1 world title holder and current World Championship leader added: “We’ve got some work to do over one lap. I think the long run looked a little bit more promising, but I think we’ve got some work to do to really try to exploit everything because we are not where we want to be. It will be very critical to be able to have some good pace.”

Verstappen will wrap up the 2024 F1 Drivers' title should he finish ahead of Lando Norris in the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday night, Nevada time. To do that Red Bull have almost two seconds to find overnight, in time for Qualifying and then the Race on the next night.

If Verstappen can't find the sweet spot on the Red Bull RB20, his teammate Perez is also likely to be at a loss too, as he was Thursday night, ending FP2 down in P19.

In the team report, Perez said: “We have some work to do over one lap, I think the long run looked a little bit more promising, but we have got to focus overnight to really try to exploit everything because we are not where we want.

"We were mainly struggling with balance in the low-speed today, the rear is stepping out a lot, we came down a lot on downforce with the rear wing and it made it quite tricky. Especially over a single lap we need to improve and hopefully, we can do that, make another step and go in the right direction.

"We know that here, Sunday is the most important day, and you can overtake and so on, so it will be very critical to be able to have some good pace," added Perez, whose poor form could cost Red Bull the Constructors' title this season.

RBR lie in P3, 49 points down on leaders McLaren and only 13 points off of Ferrari in P2 with three GPs and a Sprint race to go. If Perez can find some form, Red Bull might deny McLaren and Ferrari vragging rights on the Constructors' Championship front.